can you indulge me and tell me what your one year old eats?

[oranges]

I have a 19 month old baby who is not fussy as such, but eats in tiny quantities.
On a good day, he'll have - half a weetabix with milk,
six bites of pasta and brocolli, vanilla yoghurt,
6 bites of a blueberry muffin,
half a little bowl of chicken casserole with potatoes and carrots.

He used to eat an actual plateful of food, but hasn't done for about 4 months. Still drinks milk though. When he's sick, he won't eat a thing.

Sounds quite normal to me! Sometimes they have growth spurts which can make them hungrier. If they are ill then they do tend to off their food, just like we do. At least he is eating, which is always the main thing. Does he eat finger foods, like fruit, toast etc? Sometimes I find that if you give this kind of thing then they are quite happy to eat at their own pace...sometimes very slowly!! I know if I put dd in high chair with a selection of finger foods then she can sit there happily.

Sounds fine tbh, my ds who is just one will somedays eat loads and some days eat not so much. yesterday he had,

Breakfast - Samll bowl of Porridge and bannana.

Lunch - Yoghurt, blueberries, babybell, quavers

Dinner - not alot of Lamb Stew and then a custrad pot.

Somedays he eats more somedays he eats less. As long as your little one is growing i wouldn't worry to much.

He is growing, but he recenly lost weight after a bad cold and looks a bit like a noodle - long and thin. he just doesn't have that baby chubbiness.

he hates his high chair with a passion - I have a little table and chair that he sits at sometimes, otherwise, I tend to hold a bowl of food and he comes and picks from it or i feed him.

at nursery of course, he sits and eats with a fork!

my 14 month old eats one weetabix and mashed banana for breakfast, sweet potato and parsnip mash with cheese (one example) for lunch (small bowlful) and a yoghurt for lunch and tea is usually chunks of cheese and pieces of bread with houmous on placed in her mouth - if I just leave them on the highchair she drops it all on the floor and doesn't eat anything.

thank you! this is really reassuring. I think I got terrified by the BLW-ers talking about how their baby eats a whole roast chicken for lunch. i did try blw but ds just systematically threw everything to the floor.

well when it suits - anything eg potato, meat,sausage, haggis veggies, french toast, fruit...and when feeling pernickity just milk, cereal.used to be aright wee nibbler too, so no set bowls just nibblin and grazing

i dont force food, i let wee one eat what amount wants. i dont want food and feeding to become an issue

But granny reckons im all wrong and advocates the shuve in in their yap force feeding and never tires of tutting if any food gets thrown - which it frequently does...o hey ho

but how do you force feed? I've tried to shove food down his mouth (after he refused to eat for two days), but he spits it out. My FIL keeps telling to force feed him too, but short of putting a tube through his nose, I can't think how.

i dont force it is cruel, yes you are right cannot be done (and who would want too)i try to review what has been eaten over a week, rather than get bothered about a specific day, when you look back over a week it looks more favourable

but granny thinks im soft LOL...
also not a fan of allowing them to share your food from the plate- o no no. wee one will eat from my plate and im realxed with that, gran thinks it is terrible...i think - worse things to be cross at

Forcing a child to eat is near impossible and it's not a good idea. The more stressed and upset you become over their eating the more they are less likely to eat. If they are eating then that is a bonus! I knew of one child who would only eat jam sandwiches, and literally nothing else for the first five years of his life!!ScottishMummy is correct - look at what they eat over a week as some days they may eat more than others.

Tell your FIL to get knotted. Trust your baby. If he's satisfied with what he's eating leave it at that. My dd2 was (and still is to some degree) the same. Very rarely eats a big portion although on occasion she eats a ridiculous amount and me and DH just stare open mouthed. Then for 2 days its a grape, some toast and yoghurt. What seems to work with both dds on occasion is giving a tiny amount of different foods in turn, like a baby buffet. With mine its almost as if they get bored of one flavour. Maybe that will help. dd2 is also slightly noodle like. Her trousers are a nighmare. Either cropped so the waist fits, or the right length but they keep falling down!! (she'll be glad when she's older and a supermodel I guess!!)

Am reading this thread with interest and being reassured as I also have a baby like this.

DD2 is 17 months and hardly eats a thing. She only really started to eat any solids in the last couple of months and most days she doesn't have much.

Typical day;

breakfast~ very small bowl porridge with cooked apple/raisins

lunch~ sometimes nothing, sometimes very small amount of fruit/veg/rice/egg.

snack~ small amount of fruit maybe piece of bread.

dinner~same as lunch.

She also has 4/5 breastfeeds a day but these are generally pretty short. She doesn't seem to have any interest in meat but she likes eggs. Can't give her dairy as she and her sister both very allergic.

Actually seeing that written down it doesn't look so bad. She used to be quite chubby although not very big, but now she is quite slim. I try not to be concerned (or frustrated and a bit cross when food goes on the floor!) but we do like to see 'em eat don't we.

Beachcomber - you are right, we do like to see them eat! Which is why I love when my nephew visits (17 months) He eats anything and everything. I have never seen a child eat so much. In fact the last time he came to visit he also ate the cats food!! The cat was not happy!!

I'm very relived to find I'm not the only 1 in this position. My Dd is 16m & refuses to be spoonfed at all so eveything has to be finger food. on a good day she will eat roughly as the otehr posters have descirbed - on a bad day like today she has had
8oz mikl + half a piece of toast
2 oatcakes & afew breadstickc for snack
a handful of grapes and 1 bit of a crumpet for lunch. the cheese & ham all went to the dog!

she is tiny - only 25% centile but as teh other posters say 9 & I'm ashamed to admit having tried) you can't force fed tehm. It is a nightmare preparing food that doesn't get eaten but am trying to look at hte weekly intake & not stress about it . easier said thn done i know!!

18 month old dd, typical day:

Breakfast: 1/2 baby bowl of porridge with a couple of grapes or raisins or half a small banana. Milk.

Snack: Piece of fruit or a little piece of cheese.

Lunch: Half a piece of toast with beans or an egg. Fruit. Yogurt.

Snack: Smoothie or dry cereal or dried fruit. Sometimes a biscuit or some cake. Milk.

Supper: Whatever we have eg lentil bake, pulse stew, curry, fajitas, lasagne, moussaka - a reasonable baby bowl-full. Yoghurt.

Bedtime: Milk.

I'm coming to the conclusion this is extremely common and probably related to the rate of growth slowing down in a baby's second year.

DS1 at that age would eat 1 weetabix and a banana and that would be it for the whole day. It totally freaked me out: I tried everything, including force feeding (which was a really bad idea). Possibly as a result he continued to be a fussy eater for the next two and a bit years and only now (rising six) have I relaxed when we sit down to eat.

Even DS2, who is a little tank and ate anything that didn't move when a baby, is slowing down now he's approaching 14 months. So I think it's just part of the process.

Oh and both of them are/were big boys, 75th and 99th centile respectively

DS2 is 22mo and what he eats varies enormously from day to day.

Some days he literally doesn't stop eating - he seems constantly hungry. He'll eat an adult-sized bowl of porridge, ditto-sized bowl of raisin wheats and some toast for breakfast, a banana mid-morning, maybe a biscuit or two, sandwich, plus cheese, tomato, cucumber and some more fruit - grapes, peach and apple, say at lunchtime, then big bowl of spag bol or something for dinner, plus a yoghurt, maybe some more fruit, plus two big breastfeeds morning and evening.

Other days he'll eat a mouthful of each of the same things.

And he's massively full of energy, but you can see his ribs and his trousers are always falling down - he's a lean baby with chubby cheeks and a toddler pot belly.

can I hijack a bit & ask some advice? Dd obviosly has a sweet tooth (fruit & yoghurt not massive bars of dairy milk!)so would you offer her this if this is all she will eat, or hold out on sweet stuff a bit to encourage more savoury foods. I'm tempted to reduce teh fruit & yoghurt but worry that then he won't get anything.

I should add that she will only do finger food & hates anything wet/saucy/vaguley slimy like potato or pasta. Nightmare!!

PS my moher is also from teh forcefeeding school of thought ( must be a war time thing!)

My ds is addicted to milk - he'll have about five bottles a day. When he gets back from nursery (where they don't really give him as much milk as he'd like, he'll guzzle down two bottles in a row). I keep thinking I should wean him off the bottle and cut down milk, but when I do, he doesn't eat more, he just gets thinner and more grumpy.

oaktree - i'd give fruit and yoghurt myself if that's all she will eat, and keep getting her to try savoury foods. But I don't know if that's the 'right' advice.

Breakfast: few wheat puffs, bit of toast
Lunch: small amount of leftovers from previous day (mini cornish pasties, filo parcels, chilli, stews etc.)
Tea: bread and hummus/philadelphia or more toast; yoghurt
also lots of partly-eaten apples all day

Some days he just has a few mouthfuls and that's it. DH thinks it's because he is still bfing at night, so I'm glad to see it's normal!

Oaktree - I agree with Oranges also. I would give her what she eats and you can always keep trying with the savoury. My dd likes sweet potato and carrot as a savoury dish (mainly because it is 'sweet' I think!!)

Hunker - your baby sounds like mine - tiny frame and little round cheeks and the most enormous eyes, which are beautiful but do make him look like he's hungry all the time.

Yep, Oranges, they sound similar. There's a pic of DS2 on my profile. He's quite tall, but v lean, as I say. He uses his big brown eyes to beg food off other people though - which DS1 has never done. DS2 like a small puppy who delights in scraps of cake or fruit!